He distinguished himself from Rubio and Cruz only by refraining to claim his proposals were handed down by God. Also, he mined the tragedies of 9/11 and Hurricane Sandy for nuggets of political advantage.

Other than that, Christie did nothing but repeat the same spiel being spun by all the Republican candidates, often using the same words.

A year ago, many Republicans believed Christie was their best hope for winning the White House. They believed he would be able to reach out to voters who normally support Democrats.

The right wing of the Republican Party went bonkers. Right wing commentator Anne Coulter repeatedly showed a picture of Christie shaking hands with President Obama. The photograph was taken at a site hard-hit by Hurricane Sandy and the handshake symbolized the fact that Christie was grateful for federal emergency aid.

To Coulter and her cohort, though, the picture was “proof” that Christie was too “liberal” to run as a Republican. The right wingers did all they could to undermine him. They were helped when Christie’s credibility was hurt when the public learned he had punished a Democratic mayor in New Jersey by making sure traffic in his area got snarled on state controlled roads.

The right wingers wasted their time. They had nothing to worry about.

Far from being “the real deal,” at the town hall meeting here it became clear that Christie’s “ideas” would work only in the fantasy land conservatives seem to confuse with the real world.

In the world of conservatives, employers automatically reward employees for “working hard and playing by the rules.” They are held back from giving raises and creating jobs by government regulations that squash profits.

The same as every other Republican contender, Christie pledged that if he became President, he would remove those regulations.

In the conservative fantasyland, raising the minimum wage would create mass unemployment, so Christie assured his audience that he is dead set against it. The fact that this canard has been proven wrong over and over again carries no weight with Christie or any other Republican candidate.

Christie, like all the other Republican contenders, lives in a dream world where the U.S. reigns supreme and can willy-nilly force other sovereign nations to do anything it wants. For example, he insisted that if America “got tough” with other nations’ policies regarding the strength of their currencies, all would be well here. Never mind that the European Union, China and other huge economies could “get tough” right back.

Furthermore, Christie said we should “invest” in privatizing Mexico’s energy, as if Mexico would jump when the American President says so.

In the world of conservatives, raising interest rates would create jobs. Christie advocated for this, even though all evidence gathered in the real world over long periods of time show just the opposite to be true.

Moreover, instead of creating tuition-free public colleges, Christie would require institutions of higher learning to make the bills they send to parents more detailed. In conservativeland this would somehow force schools to compete more, which would in turn lower tuition.

Such magic seems to be a major force in conservativeland and Christie merely repeats the spells of all the other candidates.

CONTRIBUTOR

Patrick Foote writes occasionally for People's World. At the University of Central Florida, he worked with the Student Labor Action Project organizing around the intersection of student and worker issues. He would go on to work in the labor movement in such organizations as Central Florida Jobs with Justice, AFSCME Council 79, and OUR Walmart.

Larry Rubin has been a union organizer, a speechwriter and an editor of union publications. He was a civil rights organizer in the Deep South and is often invited to speak on applying Movement lessons to today's challenges. He has produced several folk music shows.